• 2024 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix - Free Practice Results

Mercedes have conceded that “there is plenty of scope” for rivals to recover against them during Friday qualifying at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Eyebrows were raised as 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton went fastest in the second practice session on Thursday, ahead o🔯🍸f teammate George Russell.

It was an immediate injection of belief and hop🐎e for a team who truly n𒆙eeded it, after two years of underperformance.

𝕴But Mercedes admit that their rivals haveꦜ the ability to change the pecking order in qualifying on Friday.

Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin reacted to their stunning Thursday performance: "Foll෴owing the test we were most concerned about our single lap pace.

“We had both drivers in the simulator before return🧔ing here. From the running [Thursday], it looks like we have improved.

“We're certainly 🐠not getting carried away, as there is plenty of scope within power unit modes and fuel loads for several cars to find a chunk of time before [Fridꦰay].

“It's encouraging though that the picture we had last week see🤡ms to have improved.

"The lo♍ng run data also looks close. Max Verstappen is still comfortably out front, as we saw last week, but behind him it's ♈going to be a tight battle for the remaining podium spots.

“We know we’ve got plenty to fine tune on the balance. It's still early days 🐟with the W15, and we're learning how to get lap-time out of it with each run, but it's already feeling very different to the la💧st two years that we have been here."

Hamilton said: "It was very windy in FP1, and the track was ✃very different to during the test.

“We didn’t know 🍌exactly where we would stack up against everyone else, but we had a positive FP2 sessio🔴n.

“The car was fee🌃ling good, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We know there is more to extract, and our long run pace isn’t in the fight with the Red Bulls.

"Overall though, I’m feeling much happier with the car than last year. We’ve made some good improvements and it feels much more like a race🍃 car.

“It’s a really good platform for us to build from. We just need to keep our🌊 heads down an🌜d keep chasing."

Russell a🦹dd🧸ed: "We’re not going to get carried away after one day of practice.

“Our♌ qualif✱ying pace did look strong. We made some changes from the test and the improvement did exceed our expectations.

“But ultimately our long run pa🦩ce is where it counts. Verstappen looked comfortably quickest, and it was very tight with the Ferraris, the McLarens, and the Aston Martins. So we’ve likely got a real fight on our hands there.”

Red Bull’s Verstappen, who was💜 P6 in FP2, reacted: “The practice sessions were not perfect but we weren’🌊t too far off.

“The long runs were quite decent, and I think we can always do a 🐻little better on th🧸ose laps.

“There were a few small balance issues that we will work on but I am quite happyไ with everything with the♚ car overall.

“[Thursday] was𝐆 just about trying to find that sweet spot and getting the perfect balance in the car.

“Performing well 🐭in qualifying is import𒅌ant, so we will make sure the car is in good shape ahead of tomorrow.

“I’m not too worried about the gap to P1 and we aren’t looking to𒈔o much at the others and are just🎃 focusing on ourselves at the moment.

“🃏It’s going to be very close in qualifying but we will try and work a bit more and fight for pole [on Friday].”